Department of Health Sciences Faculty Articles
Title
Bilingual Long-Term Working Memory: The Effects of Working Memory Loads on Writing Quality and Fluency
ISBN or ISSN
0142-7164
Volume
22
Issue
1
Publication Date / Copyright Date
3-2001
First Page
113
Last Page
128
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
DOI Number
10.1017/S0142716401001060
Abstract
In Experiment 1, 42 multilinguals were able to maintain native language writing quality and fluency in the presence of unattended irrelevant speech while maintaining a concurrent 6-digit memory load. In Experiment 2, 80 bilinguals reduced fluency during writing with the 6-digit load only. In previous research, over 100 monolinguals of comparable verbal and nonverbal skills in three experiments reduced quality and fluency under both secondary tasks (Ransdell, Levy, & Kellogg, 1996). The results are interpreted in terms of a bilingual skill advantage in suppressing irrelevant information. Possessing fluency in another language may confer long-term working memory benefits during dual-task language conditions for bilinguals and even more so for multilinguals.
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences
Keywords
Bilingualism, Cognitive Processes, Language Fluency, Memory, Multilingualism, Writing Skills
NSUWorks Citation
Ransdell, Sarah Ellen PhD; Arecco, Rosario M.; and Levy, Michael C., "Bilingual Long-Term Working Memory: The Effects of Working Memory Loads on Writing Quality and Fluency" (2001). Department of Health Sciences Faculty Articles. 254.
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hpd_hs_facarticles/254
